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ducks and drakes
noun
- a game in which a flat stone is bounced across the surface of water
- make ducks and drakes of or play ducks and drakes with or play at ducks and drakes withto use recklessly; squander or waste
Word History and Origins
Origin of ducks and drakes1
Idioms and Phrases
- play ducks and drakes with, to handle recklessly; squander: Also make ducks and drakes of.
He played ducks and drakes with his fortune.
Example Sentences
If I am not mistaken, this young gentleman would play ducks-and-drakes with that in a very short time.
Master Faustus, I know you for a man who plays away his money at ducks-and-drakes, and who has a loose tongue.
The foreshore is all grey stones, round and flat, the sort you'd choose to play what's called ducks-and-drakes.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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